“Does this bill in any way enhance public safety?” Waller said. “It’s nothing more than a hunch that it’s going to have an impact on public safety.”

Republicans need to turn five Democrats against the bills to defeat them. They were hoping Durango Rep. Mike McLachlan would be one of them after he sponsored an amendment Tuesday to raise the bill’s original ban on magazines of more than 10 bullets to 15.

But McLachlan stuck by the bill and lamented the lack of an effort to compromise.

“As far as I can tell, there seems to be no appetite on one side of this debate for any type of magazine limitation whatsoever. I think that’s unreasonable. I think 10 (rounds) is unreasonable,” McLachlan said.

The Durango Democrat said the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the Second Amendment right to own a gun also set limits on the right.

“No constitutional right – even the Second Amendment – is absolute,” he said.